Bojan Zigic was a truck driver who often worked long shifts, and last weekend his fiance Erica Spoeri let him sleep late by keeping their 3-month-old son quiet in the LaGrange Park home they shared with her parents.

But Zigic's sleeping until 3 p.m. apparently angered her stepfather, leading to an argument that resulted in the older man punching Zigic, the 24-year-old mother said.

It wasn't the first disagreement between her stepfather and her fiance, she said, but Zigic didn't fight back or want to press charges -- he just made arrangements to get his baby and wife-to-be away.

On Monday when he returned to the home on the 200 block of Kings Court about 5 p.m. with a rental truck and friends to move their belongings out, the argument resumed and ended with Carl Spoeri, 55, attacking him again and causing fatal brain damage, prosecutors said at a bond hearing this week.

Carl Spoeri on Friday was ordered held in lieu of $250,000 bail on murder charges.

"He took everything away from me," Erica Spoeri, 23, said Saturday about the man she called her dad since she was 5 years old.

Erica said her stepfather had no reason to criticize Zigic for sleeping in, because he had worked until 3:30 a.m. that morning. She said her husband-to-be worked hard as a truck driver and had been contributing to the support of her whole family during recent financial difficulties.

She and Zigic had dated for almost 10 years, and were going to be married in October.

"Bojan was always there for me," Erica Spoeri said, her voice choking. "All he kept thinking about was our son."

She said they had tried to have a baby for a while, and they were elated that she was able to conceive about a month after having ovarian surgery.

"Bojan loved him more than anything in the world," she said.

On Monday when Zigic and his friends finished loading the truck, Erica Spoeri was inside making a bottle for the baby when Carl Spoeri returned from work, went up to Zigic and punched him in the head with his fist, prosecutors said at the bond hearing.

Seeing her boyfriend being struck, Erica Spoeri rushed through a glass front door of the home, shattering it and cutting herself. She eventually was given 20 stitches.

As Zigic stumbled, Spoeri hit him again with his fist and slapped him, causing Zigic to hit his head on a car bumper, prosecutors said.

Erica Spoeri said she saw him fall to the ground and begin to shudder.

Zigic was rushed to the hospital and put on life-support, but never regained consciousness and was declared brain-dead Thursday. She said the life-support was removed on Friday and he expired.

Zigic never fought back, never attacked her stepfather, she said. He was moving his family out from the LaGrange Park home and getting them away from the anger.

"He was protecting his family, like any father would," Erica Spoeri said.

She and her baby are now staying with Zigic's family, and she said she will be there throughout court to make sure her stepfather pays for what he did.

"He wrecked so many lives," Erica Spoeri said. "I want him to be put away forever."